Windows Server Getting Started Guide 430

Big Brother Professional Edition Windows Server Getting Started Guide

Version 430

Revision 2310- Copyright copy 2010 Quest Software

copy Copyright Quest Software Inc 2002ndash2009 All rights reserved This guide contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright The software described in this guide is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaserrsquos personal use without the written permission of Quest Software Inc

Warranty The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice Quest Software makes no warranty of any kind with respect to this information QUEST SOFTWARE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF THE MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE Quest Software shall not be liable for any direct indirect incidental consequential or other damage alleged in connection with the furnishing or use of this information

Trademarks Quest Big Brother Foglight and Spotlight are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quest Software Inc Other trademarks and registered trademarks used in this guide are property of their respective owners

Acknowledgements SocketTools by Catalyst Development Corp Portions of this software based on SocketTools(TM) licensed from Catalyst Development Corporation

Regex++ library copy Copyright 1998ndash2000 by Dr John Maddock Permission to use copy modify distribute and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation Dr John Maddock makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose It is provided as is without express or implied warranty

Cryptographic routines This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eaycryptsoftcom) Copyright (c) 1998-2006 The OpenSSL Project All rights reserved

Numeric paging This product includes POWERP32DLL a product written by Ron Tanner of Tanner amp Associates

SMS Messaging Portions copyright(c) 1997-2006 LANGNER Communications AG All Rights reserved

libcurl Copyright (c) 1996 - 2006 Daniel Stenberg ltdanielhaxxsegt

NET-SNMP Copyright 1989 1991 1992 by Carnegie Mellon University Copyright 1996 1998-2000 The Regents of the University of California Copyright (c) 2001-2003 Networks Associates Technology Inc All rights reserved Portions of this code are copyright (c) 2001-2003 Cambridge Broadband Ltd All rights reserved Copyright copy 2003 Sun Microsystems Inc 4150 Network Circle Santa Clara California 95054 USA All rights reserved Copyright (c) 2003-2006 Sparta Inc All rights reserved Copyright (c) 2004 Cisco Inc and Information Network Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications All rights reserved Copyright (c) Fabasoft RampD Software GmbH amp Co KG 2003 ossfabasoftcom Author Bernhard Penz

Charting SWFObject is (c) 2007 Geoff Stearns and is released under the MIT License


World Headquarters

5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo CA 92656

USA wwwquestcom

email infoquestcom US and Canada 9497548000

Please refer to our Web site for regional and international office information

Big Brother Professional Edition Windows Server Getting Started Guide Software Version 430

v

Table of Contents

Description of Big Brother Professional Edition 1

About This Document 3

Big Brother Professional Edition Terminology 3

Getting the Product 3

Big Brother System Requirements 3

Installing the IIS Web Server 3 Windows 2000 2003 2008 XP or Windows 7 4

Installing Big Brother 430 4 Installation Verification5

Verifying Virtual Directory Creation on Windows 2000 2003 2008 XP or Windows 75

Manual Creation of Virtual Directories7 Creating Virtual Directories Using IIS 7 Creating Virtual Directories Using Windows Explorer 7

Checking that Big Brother is running as a Service 8 Windows 2000 2003 2008 XP or Windows 7 8

Accessing Big Brother 9

Configuration files bb-hostscfg and bbdefcfg 9 The bb-hostscfg Configuration File 10

IP Address and Hostname10 Directives 10 Defining New Hosts 11 Modifying the Big Brother Display13

The bbdefcfg Configuration File 14 Creating Notes About Your Hosts 16

Database connectivity 17 Creating DB tables 17

Notification 18 Setting Notification Options 18 Creating Host Groups and Recipient Groups18 Defining Notification Rules 19

TABLE OF CONTENTS

vi

Acknowledging Notifications20

Migration From Older Versions 21 Migrating or Updating the Big Brother Windows Server21

About Quest Software 22 Contacting Quest Software22 Technical Support22 Permanent License 22

BIG BROTHER PROFESSIONAL EDITION WINDOWS SERVER GETTING STARTED GUIDE

1

Description of Big Brother Professional Edition

Big Brother Professional Edition (BBPE or Big Brother) is a software tool for monitoring computers other devices with an IP address and processes As long as the machines are connected to a network the physical locations of the stations being monitored are not important This lets you monitor computer networks remotely 24-hours a day Big Brother generates web pages that can be viewed internally or externally and can notify one or more people of the network status via e-mail pager SMS and SNMP traps Here is a sample of the Big Brother status display Web page


2

And herersquos a sample of the Big Brother status display using Flash

Big Brother consists of two parts a server and a client The server monitors services which can be tested over the Internet HTTP FTP and so on It does this by sending messages over the Internet to the host and seeing if it receives a reply The server also collects status logs prepares and makes available the display Web pages and processes all notifications The server can be installed on one or more than one computer a single server instance can monitor many host computers

The Big Brother client tests services which can only be monitored internally by checking the computer itself CPU and disk space usage message files and so on The client must be installed on each host where you want to monitor these internal processes it sends the results of its tests over the network or Internet to a Big Brother server

Big Brother is very flexible You configure the hosts to monitor and what tests to perform on each You also select when e-mail or pager notifications are sent based on test results and who they are sent to You can have different recipients based on the host the test the day andor the time You can also add external scripts to extend the processes and services Big Brother can monitor


3

About This Document

This document describes installation and initial configuration of the Big Brother server software on a Windows host It does not discuss installing or using the Big Brother client

For more detailed information about the Big Brother server software please see the online help

Big Brother Professional Edition Terminology

This guide uses the following terminology throughout Understanding the terminology is important to running Big Brother successfully

Big Brother server mdash A computer running the Big Brother server software It may function as any or all of BBDISPLAY BBPAGER and BBNET

BBDISPLAY mdash The computer that accepts incoming reports and prepares them for display It is also called the display server Big Brother uses the Web as its user interface so it can be accessed by anyone with clearance to access the Big Brother site

BBPAGER mdash The computer that sends notifications if alarm levels are exceeded It is also called the pager server

BBNET ndash The computer that performs all network tests for each protocol for each system listed in the bb-hostscfg file Starting with BBPE 330 you can have multiple BBNETs running in parallel (as long as each are defined with a unique location tag)

Big Brother client ndash A computer that retrieves CPU disk memory process and service information and messages using the Big Brother client software

Getting the Product

You can download the product from the Quest website at httpwwwbb4com

Big Brother System Requirements

Pentium II 400Mhz or later or equivalent server

4GB of disk space for historical data (more if you plan to use a database andor save performancetrending data)

Windows XP 2000 Server or Professional 2003 Server Windows 2008 or Windows 7

TCPIP networking

Installing the IIS Web Server

In order for Big Brother to work the BBDISPLAY machine must have a web server installed In some cases the web server (such as Microsoftrsquos IIS the Internet Information Server) is already installed The


4

following section explains how to check for web server installation IIS5 IIS6 and IIS7 are currently supported

Windows 2000 2003 2008 XP or Windows 7

1 Go to Start Control Panel AddRemove Programs

2 Click AddRemove Windows Components

3 This displays a list of installed Windows components If the IIS box is checked IIS is already installed and you do not need to do anything If the box is not checked click it to install IIS

Note that on Windows 2008 all ldquoManagement Toolsrdquo must be installed otherwise the Big Brother installation will fail and rollback Also make sure that the rdquoCGIrdquo module is installed in IIS Also on Windows 2008 if you intend to use SQL Server has a data store make sure that when you configure ODBC with BBPE to use the 32bit driver and not the 64bit driver

Installing Big Brother 430

1 Go to the directory where you downloaded the installation file

2 Double-click the bbntdpe-420exe file

3 Accept the Big Brother license agreement

4 Enter your name and a company

5 Enter the directory to install Big Brother in

6 Enter the directory where the database BBVAR will be located

The Big Brother installation will then inform you that enough information has been provided and will complete the installation

Once the installation procedure is completed a key will be generated as shown in the sample screen below To obtain a permanent license from this license key call your sales representative

An entry should now be in your start menu for Quest Software Big Brother

The next step is to check if the appropriate entries have been made to inform the web server where Big Brother is located


5

Installation Verification

It is important to check that Big Brother installation created the necessary virtual directories for IIS Follow the instructions below for Windows 2000 2003 2008 XP or Windows 7

Verifying Virtual Directory Creation on Windows 2000 2003 XP or Windows 7

1 Open the Internet Information Services utility Start Control Panel Administrative Tools Internet Services Manager

2 Click the plus sign next to the host where you installed the Big Brother server

3 Select Default Web Site The following screen should appear

If the Big Brother virtual directory is not listed continue with ldquoManual Creation of Virtual Directoriesrdquo 2 pages below


6

Verifying Virtual Directory Creation on Windows 2008

1 Open Server Manager 2 Expand Roles 3 Expand Web Server IIS

If the Big Brother virtual directory is not listed continue with ldquoManual Creation of Virtual Directoriesrdquo below


7

Manual Creation of Virtual Directories

If the virtual directories were not created during the initial install you must add them manually using one of the following procedures

Creating Virtual Directories Using IIS

Add the bb structure to your Web server by adding this tree structure to the ltBig BrothergtWWW directory

If you have installed Big Brother server in the directory CProgram FilesQuest SoftwareBig BrotherBBNTD430 set the bb Web server entry to CProgram FilesQuest SoftwareBig BrotherBBNTD430WWW

You must also create a cgi-bin directory structure for the Big Brother server Link this tree to the ltBig BrothergtCGI_BIN directory Make sure you set the execute flag for cgi-bin in the directory tree

Creating Virtual Directories Using Windows Explorer

You can also create those virtual directories by using Windows Explorer

1 Right click the CProgram FilesQuest SoftwareBig BrotherBBNTD430WWW directory

2 Click the Web Sharing tab

3 Enter bb for the virtual directory name

4 Set the permissions to Read amp Script

5 Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the directory CProgram FilesQuest SoftwareBig BrotherBBNTD430cgi-bin In step 3 set the virtual directory name to bbcgi-bin In step 4 set the permissions to Execute


8

Checking that Big Brother is running as a Service


To check that Big Brother is set up as a service and set to run automatically

1 Open the Services Manager by selecting Start Control Panel Administrative Tools Services

2 Make sure there is an entry for Big Brother as shown here

Big Brother is set to run automatically by default

If there is no service for Big Brother either re-install the product or contact Technical Support as described on page 22


9

Accessing Big Brother

At this point the Big Brother server should be running and accessible Open a browser window and point it to the Big Brother directory httpyouripherebb or httpyourmachinenamebb This displays the main Big Brother page

This is the simplest Big Brother display showing only two tests for one host (the Big Brother Server) If all the sensors displayed are in green everything is working In the following sections yoursquoll see how to add more hosts to monitor and how to define the tests to perform on each one

There is a toolbar at the top left with these icons

Click this icon to display the Management page From the Management page you can page a Big Brother Administrator acknowledge a page you have received from Big Brother edit configuration files or enabledisable notifications for certain hosts andor services

Click this icon to switch between the Big Brother main page (bbhtml) and condensed view (bb2html)

Click this icon to create an availability report

Click this icon to display the help file

See the Big Brother online help for more information about these features

Configuration files bb-hostscfg and bbdefcfg

You configure Big Brother server by modifying configuration files These files have the extension cfg and are in the etc subdirectory of the Big Brother server installation directory In a default installation this is CProgram FilesQuest SoftwareBig BrotherBBNTD430etc

There are two main configuration files

The bb-hostscfg file tells Big Brother what hosts to monitor and what network services to monitor on each host It also controls the display format of the web pages


10

The bbdefcfg file configures general characteristics of Big Brother such as how long a status log is valid after it has been received by the Big Brother server

Any change to these files requires you to stop and restart the Big Brother server You can do this by selecting Start Programs Quest Software Big Brother Server StopStart

WARNING Always back up bb-hostscfg or bbdefcfg before changing it

The bb-hostscfg Configuration File

When you first open the bb-hostscfg file it will contain the following

upon install your Big Brother server is assigned

a basic configuration Modify with the proper BBNTD server address and

hostname

then start adding the other client servers you want to test

127001 somehostquestcom testip BBPAGER BBNET BBDISPLAY

httpsomehostquestcombb

The last line (split into two lines in the sample above) is a host definition The format for the host definition lines is

ltIP-ADDRgt ltHOSTNAMEgt ltDIRECTIVESgt

The following sections discuss the parts of the host definition

IP Address and Hostname

The first entry on the line is the IP address of the host To get started change the 127001 on the first line to the address of the server on which Big Brother is installed You can find your IP address by typing ipconfig at a command prompt

The second part of the line is the hostname Enter the fully-qualified domain name for the server where Big Brother is installed such as mymachinequestcom instead of simply mymachine

Stop and start Big Brother after making these changes to your bb-hostscfg file You may have to wait up to five minutes for your changes to effect the Big Brother display

Directives

Everything after the sign is a directive (a space should always follow it) For computers with the Big Brother server software installed directives determine what roles this host fills for Big Brothermdashwhich server functions it performs For all hosts they determine what network tests are performed on the host In the above example the directives indicate that the host with this IP is the Big Brother web server (directive BBDISPLAY) the notification server (directive BBPAGER) and runs the IP network services (directive BBNET) It will test IP connectivity regardless of the hostname by using the IP address (directive testip) and check the web page httpsomehostquestcombb

Many other directives are possible refer to the Big Brother online help for more information Big Brother roles and network tests are discussed below


11

Big Brother Roles

Directives on the line defining a Big Brother server determine which server functions that machine performs When the Big Brother server software starts up it finds itself in the bb-hostscfg file to determine what it has to do The directives and the roles they assign are

BBDISPLAY mdash Receive incoming status logs and generate and make available the bbhtml (main display) bb2html (condensed view) or bbfthml (Flash view) web pages You can define more than one BBDISPLAY if you want to run parallel instances To use multiple BBDISPLAY servers each monitored Big Brother client must have all the BBDISPLAY servers defined

BBPAGER mdash Receive and process requests to notify administrators There can be more than one BBPAGER but if there are the administrator may be notified once by each BBPAGER server for the same event There is no synchronization between BBPAGER servers

BBNET mdash Perform all network tests on each host listed in bb-hostscfg Many hosts can act as BBNETs but you should use more than one only when you are very comfortable with Big Brother server configuration See the online help for more information

BBRELAY mdash Relay all messages to the host defined in the BBRELAY directive Consider this example

1234 bbhost BBDISPLAY BBRELAY2345

This Big Brother server (bbhost) will relay all of its incoming messages to the 2345 Big Brother host The current host does not have to be a BBDISPLAY It can just be a BBRELAY

1234 bbhost BBRELAY2345

For this setup all Big Brother clients must assume that 1234 is a BBDISPLAY While 1234 will receive status messages from clients you will not be able to view them from that host you will need to access 2345

This feature is useful to redirect status messages to a central location while keeping a local copy It is also helpful if you need to move the BBDISPLAY server but do not have time to modify all clients with the new BBDISPLAY address You can specify multiple BBRELAYs To use a port other than the default (1984) on the BBRELAY server enter the port number after the IP address For example


Defining New Hosts

You can define additional hosts in bb-hostscfg following the same conventions For example to monitor machine orwellquestcom on IP 19216801 the entry would look like

19216801 orwellquestcom testip http19216801

If you have a bb-hostscfg file with two hosts defined like this (the first two lines are really one line in the file)

19216801 orwellquestcom testip BBPAGER BBNET BBDISPLAY

http19216801

1921680154 foglightquestcom ftp telnet httpfoglightquestcom


12

The screen display would look like this (remember you have to stop and restart the server and wait up to five minutes for your change to take effect)

In this way you can add any number of new serversworkstations and other devices The example does not show monitoring of internal services such as CPU disk memory messages processes or services because the Big Brother client must be installed on any host where you want to monitor internal processes

Testing Network Services

To test network services on a host you list the network test directives on the hostrsquos line in bb-hostscfg (If there are no test directives Big Brother will only ping the host and display the results in the conn column) These tests will be performed by the host defined as the BBNET server Basic TCP-based protocol tests have native support you can easily add other TCP-based protocols The network tests verify for connectivity and proper protocol response (The Big Brother UNIX server tests only for connectivity)

Big Brother has native support for these TCP-based protocols

http https ssh ssh1 ssh2 telnet ftp pop pop2 pop3 smtp telnet imap

If the protocol is text-based and simple just specify it on the host line The name of the TCP service must be valid and resolvable the port ID and the service name must be defined in the services file (System32driversetcservices)

To be tested protocols must be listed both in the BBNETSVCS variable in the bbdefcfg file (see page 14) and in the network services file (or equivalent) and their spelling must match The pop3 service is sometimes listed as pop-3 in the services file if it is make sure it is listed the same way in bbdefcfg The services file is a configuration file that is part of your operating system You can test protocols that are not defined in the services file as described below

You can add either of two prefixes to a network test directive to change its operation

Add a to indicate the service should not be running This option is especially useful on secure networks to make sure certain protocols are not left open accidentally For example telnet

Add a to specify that the service is a dialup service If the test fails it should generate a clear status not a red status to indicate that the service is offline For example ftp

For the HTTP test you include the URL to test after the directive For example

httpwww-path


13

This tests the host for HTTP connections using the www-path You can specify multiple URLs either by joining them with |

httpwww-path|httpwww-path1

Or by specifying them individually

httpwww-path httpwww-path1

For any network service directive you can add these qualifiers

s mdash Silent mode Big Brother connects to the service port but does not establish a protocol conversation

q mdash Quiet mode Big Brother runs the regular network test but returns only the result of the test not the protocol conversation (This qualifier currently works only on Big Brother UNIX servers)

To add your own protocol to test (one that isnrsquot listed in the network services file) just add the directive name followed by the port number to test on

123123123123 somehostcom newtest1234

This creates a test called newtest which tests on port 1234 You must also add newtest to the BBNETSVCS variable in the bbdefcfg file You can use the s qualifier with the new test if the service is not text-based you must use s

You can also add these directives for any host

dns mdash Check for the name resolution server

noping mdash Do not do the ping test for this host

noconn mdash Do not do the ping test for this host and dont generate a clear dot

dialup mdash If the host is unreachable display it with a clear button instead of a red button

nodisp mdash Donrsquot show this entry in the display page you can also say nodispcpu to not display the cpu result for this entry in the bb-hostscfg file Multiple services can be specified nodispcpudisk will remove the cpu and disk results on the display for this entry

Big Brother supports DHCP addressing For hosts which use DHCP put 0000 in the IP address field and the hostname will be used for testing

By default Big Brother uses DNS to make sure the IP address corresponds to the host name entered You can add the testip directive to a host definition to force Big Brother to use the IP address for that host not the host name If the IP address is entered as 0000 (for b DHCP) Big Brother uses the hostname regardless of testip

Modifying the Big Brother Display

By default Big Brother lists the status of each test for each host in a large HTML table on the bbhtml page (or bbfhtml for the Flash view) on the BBDISPLAY server You can change this by using the group directives to split the results into separate tables the page directives to move some results to a separate linked page the summary directives to display the status of one page of another BBDISPLAY and use the display directive to isolate portions of the BB pages All of these directives are fully described in the online help


14

The bbdefcfg Configuration File

Options available in the etcbbdefcfg file control many aspects of Big Brotherrsquos behavior Changes to any of these options take effect only after the Big Brother server has been stopped and restarted The table below lists some of the more commonly-changed options You should not need to change any of these to get Big Brother to work initially except possibly BBWEBHOST check this entry to make sure it includes the fully-qualified domain name Also if your Web server does not use port 80 yoursquoll need to add the port number to the BBWEBHOST entry

For more complete information see the online help and the comments in the bbdefcfg file

Option Description FQDN Are the status logs reported by the clients in a Fully

Qualified Domain Name format If FQDN is TRUE hosts will be displayed as wwwbb4com otherwise they will be displayed as www If you set FQDN=FALSE make sure no two clients share the same host name If FQDN=TRUE make sure your hostnames in the bb-hostscfg file are also in FQDN format

In almost all circumstances FQDN should be TRUE Set it to FALSE only if you have a specific reason to do so

BBSLEEP This is the interval in seconds to wait before recreating the main Big Brother HTML pages bbhtml and bb2html

BBTMP The directory to save temporary files in

BBSKIN Which skin (theme) to use with this Big Brother installation You can change the look of Big Brother by creating your own skin Instructions for creating your own look are in the online help

BBWEBHOST The httpsomehostcom portion of your Big Brother installation URL Include the port number if your web server is not using port 80 For example

httpmywebserver8080

If you have a different port number donrsquot forget to also change bb-hostscfg

The format of BBWEBHOST must match the FQDN setting (see above) which usually means it should be a fully-qualified domain name

BBWEB The directory path of the URL of your Big Brother installation It is used with the BBWEBHOST variable to create the complete URL of your Big Brother installation

CGIBINURL URL location of the cgi-bin directory used by Big Brother You can change this value to a global cgi-bin directory If you do you must copy the Big Brother cgi-


15

Option Description bin programs to that directory

BBLOGSTATUS Status logs are converted immediately into HTML pages if BBLOGSTATUS=STATIC If it is set to DYNAMIC the status logs are rendered into HTML when you click a colored dot Setting this to DYNAMIC is useful when you have a lot of hosts and want to minimize the resources used by the BBNTD program

PAGELEVELS The status color(s) that generate a notification

SAVESTATUSLOG If set to TRUE each color change for a status log will be saved so you will be able to view its previous log contents (Viewing of the previous logs is currently unavailable)

PURPLEDELAY The number of minutes before a status log is declared outdated If a status log hasnt been updated after PURPLEDELAY minutes the test will show a purple dot This may generate a notification depending on the value of PAGELEVELS

BBNETSVCS The valid network services to be tested They must exactly match the spelling found in the bb-hostscfg file

BBNETSLEEP The number of seconds the BBNET host waits between each iteration of the network tests

BBNETTHREADS The number of concurrent tests the BBNET host can execute You can increase the value until you notice degradation in system and Big Brother resources Each thread tests a separate host

MAXLINE Maximum size accepted for incoming message

PINGCOUNT The maximum number of packets sent during the connectivity test The connectivity test returns upon the first successful test

MULTIOPTS Define the behavior of BB when tests with location tags are encountered

PROPAGATE_MULTILOC_RESULT Should aggregate logs determined from multi location tests be sent to non-local BBDISPLAYs

BBCURRDISP Required top-level zone name when using the display zone feature

RUNOPTS Runtime options

ENABLE_DISABLE allows enablingdisabling notifications request messages

DATAMSG Accept incoming data message type

NOTESMSG Accept incoming notes message


16

Option Description PERF Generate performancetrending data for network tests and display graphs

TRAP Allow BB to receive SNMP traps

SAVE_IN_FILES save BB data in flat files

SAVE_IN_DB save BB data in database

USEFILES Use flat files data for display

USEDB Use database data for display

Creating Notes About Your Hosts

You can set up an HTML link from any host name on the main and condensed displays to an information page for that host You do this by creating in the wwwnotes directory a file with a name that exactly matches the system name as displayed by Big Brother and a null extension or the extension htm html shtml or php3 When it finds such a file Big Brother links to it from the host name in both the bbhtml (main display) and bb2html (condensed display) page

You can create these files manually or you can use the bbexe utilitymdashwhich is part of the Big Brother clientmdashto send a notes message The command format for a notes message is

bb 0000 ldquonotes name of file data to write to the filerdquo For example

bb 0000 ldquonotes wwwquestcomhtml ltHTMLgtltBODYgt Home page for Quest SoftwareltBODYgtltHTMLgtrdquo This command creates a file named wwwquestcomhtml in the wwwnotes directory under the Big Brother installation directory on the BBDISPLAY host the file contains the text Home page for Quest Software The next time Big Brother creates the bbhtml and bb2html files they will include a link to this file from the host name wwwquestcom

Note The notes message will only be accepted if the RUNOPTS variable in the etcbbdefcfg file on the BBDISPLAY server has the NOTESMSG keyword defined See the online help or the bbdefcfg file for more information

The format shown for the bbexe command is for a Windows client On a UNIX client you must replace 0000 with the IP address of the destination BBDISPLAY server


17

Database connectivity

Big Brother has historically saved incoming status logs and its associated data in flat files Since version 400 it can also save the status information into a database By default it saves the status logs in flat files unless you configure it to use a database by making the appropriate changes in the etcbbdbcfg file

WARNING Always back up bbdbcfg before changing it

This section describes the steps to follow in order to allow Big Brother to save and retrieve status information from a database

Creating DB tables

It is assumed that a database server has been installed and is functional It is also assumed that ODBC has been installed and is functional

The first task to execute is to create the various DB tables that Big Brother requires Depending on the database server that you have chosen from the list that Big Brother supports (SQL Server Oracle and mySQL) locate the script in the etc directory enter the maintenance utility of your database server and execute the script

After that is accomplished edit the etcbbdbcf file to configure Big Brother for use with a database The table below lists the various settings in the configuration file

Option Description DATA_SOURCE This is the data source name to use

USER_DB User name for database operations

PASWORD_DB Associated password with the user defined in USER_DB

SAVEALL_DB By default BB only stores information when therersquos a change of color in a monitored item

BBSVR_NAME User defined tag to associate the data to a logical server name (otherwise the local hostname will be used if undefined)


18

Notification

By default Big Brother will send a notification if any test returns a red or purple status The only setup you must do for notification to work is to enter the e-mail address to send the notification to However in most cases yoursquoll want to specify one or more notification rules and change some notification options you may have to set the mailrelay option described below You can change who gets notified for what events by modifying the bbwarnrulescfg file You change the options for notification by modifying the bbwarnsetupcfg file

WARNING Always back up bbwarnrulescfg or bbwarnsetupcfg before changing it

This section discusses the changes yoursquore likely to want to make soon after installing Big Brother and gives some examples The Big Brother online help describes in detail how to modify the notification rules and options

Setting Notification Options

The bbwarnsetupcfg file contains many options which affect the way notifications work When setting up notification for the first time you will probably want to set these three

bbwarn Set to TRUE (this should be set by default make sure it is)

bbemailfromaddress This will be the ldquofromrdquo address for all e-mail notifications Set it to a valid e-mail address For example chriscompanycom

mailrelay The Big Brother server (specifically the BBPAGER server) must be able to relay an e-mail to an SMTP server Enter the name of a smart SMTP relay host

There are many other options in bbwarnsetupcfg You can change the status colors which trigger a notification how long to wait before a notification and much more See the online help or the file itself for more information

Creating Host Groups and Recipient Groups

Many installations want to send notification messages from different hosts to different recipientsmdashfor example notifications from UNIX hosts to one set of people and those from Windows hosts to another group You can accomplish this by listing each host and recipient in notification rules (see the next section) but there is an easier way you can define host groups and recipient groups (called page groups) in bbwarnsetupcfg

To define a host group you use the hg-group token Its format is

hg-groupname host1 host2 hellip For example you can create a group containing your monitored UNIX hosts

hg-unix unixmach1 unixmach2 unixmach3

You can place any number of hosts into a host group You can also define as many host groups as you want by entering multiple hg-group tokens


19

hg-unix unixmach1 unixmach2 unixmach3 hg-windows winmach1 winmach2 winmach3

To define a group of recipients (a page group) you use the pg-group token Its format is

pg-groupname recipient1 recipient2 hellip The recipients can be either e-mail addresses or pager numbers Here is an example

pg-unixadmins kriscompanycom johncompanycom debracompanycom

As with host groups you can create as many page groups as you want Once you have defined host groups andor page groups you can use the group name in any notification rule instead of listing all the host names or recipient addresses

Defining Notification Rules

The etcbbwarnrulescfg file contains one or more rules defining who Big Brother sends notification messages to You can define different recipients for notifications about different hosts and at different times For example you may want to have different administrators notified for problems during the day and at night

Rules are written in this following format

hostsexhostsservicesexservicescolorsdaytimerecipients

or

hostsexhostsservicesexservicesdaytimerecipients

The latter format is to allow backward compatibility with pre-330 versions The ldquocolorsrdquo field has been added to allow a rule to trigger only on the defined colors in that filed Note that by setting that field to lsquorsquo the rule will behave like pre-330 versions where only colors defined in the pagelevels entry in the bbwarnsetupcfg file are matched on

By default each field is separated from the next by a semi-colon () you can change this by changing the cfgdelim setting in bbwarnsetupcfg The fields are

hosts This rule is for these hosts

exhosts Exclude these hosts from this rule

For both hosts and exhosts you can enter host groups instead of or in addition to host names Use the format hg-groupname

You can also enter unmatched- as the host name to indicate all hosts which are not covered by any other rule

services This rule is for these services

exservices Exclude these services from this rule

colors The rule only applies to listed colors A lsquorsquo uses the colors defined in the pagelevels entry in the bbwarnsetupcfg file

day 0-6 (Sunday-Saturday) You can enter a range of days by separating the numbers with a dash (-) For example 2-4 for Tuesday through Thursday

time 0000-2359


20

Time ranges cannot cross midnight 2300-0100 is not valid To do this you must enter a separate rule for the time before and after midnight

recipients The page groups e-mail addresses numeric pager numbers andor SMS recipients to notify

Page groups are as defined in the bbwarnsetupcfg file Enter pg-groupname See the previous section

E-mail recipients are in the form namedomain

Numeric page recipients are in the form 123-4567

SMS recipients are in the form sms-recipient Recipient must be defined in the file bbwarnsmscfg See the comments in that file and the online help for more information

SNMP trap recipients are in the form trap-ipaddress or trap-hostname Ipaddress or hostname must be defined in the bbwarnsnmpcfg file

You can override the pagedelay default (from bbwarnsetupcfg) for any recipient by following the recipient with a colon () and the number of minutes to set the pagedelay to For example namecompanycom20 to set the pagedelay for this recipient for 20 minutes

For all fields you can use the wildcard by itself indicates all (all hosts all services all days etc) You can also use with a partial entry for example win for all hosts starting with win

You can separate multiple entries in a field with spaces

For example to notify recipients in the group unixadmins for all hosts in the host group unix and all recipients in the group winadmins for all hosts in the host group windows enter these two rules

hg-unixpg-unixadmins hg-windowspg-winadmins

You can also create a rule to be used if a host is not listed in bb-hostscfg Set the host name to unmatched- For example

unmatched-bbadminlocalhostcom

Here is a more complex sample rule

win34 unix12cpu diskred0 5 6backupadminquestcom 555-9999

This rule send notifications for all hosts except win34 and unix12 and all tests except the cpu and disk tests if the color is red and on Sunday Friday and Saturday only via e-mail to backupadminquestcom and to a pager with the number 555-9999

Acknowledging Notifications

Anyone who receives a notification can send an acknowledgement to the Big Brother server This changes the colored dot for the event to a checkmark and adds a status line at the bottom of the individual status page By default the last 25 acknowledgements are listed on the condensed display

To acknowledge a notification

1 Display either the main or condensed display

2 Click on the checkmark in the toolbar at the upper left


21

3 Enter the seven-digit ack ID from the notification message in the Enter Security Code field on the acknowledgement section and specify the delay to apply to the next notification for the event in the Dont page me again field

4 Click send ack

Migration From Older Versions

You can update Big Brother from an older version or move it to another system In either case perform the procedures below

Migrating or Updating the Big Brother Windows Server

1 Stop the Big Brother server through the Windows Start menu

2 If you are going to install a new version of Big Brother to the same location as your existing version copy the etc and BBVAR subdirectories of the Big Brother installation directory to a safe location If yoursquove customized the Big Brother display by making any additions or changes in the skins subdirectory copy it also If you will install the new version into a new directory (this is the default) you can skip this step

3 Install the new version (or the same version on a new machine) as described on page 4

4 Restore the saved files from the previous Big Brother etc directory or its backup to the new etc directory Most likely these files will be bb-hostscfg bbdefcfg bbwarnsetupcfg and bbwarnrulescfg Copy all files from the old BBVAR subdirectory or its backup to the new BBVAR subdirectory Copy files to the new skins subdirectory as desired

5 Change permissions on the restored files to be read and write to the Big Brother user

6 If you are upgrading a machine which already has a Big Brother license the LICENSE file is copied automatically from the old etc directory into the new one If you are changing Big Brother machines or need a new license key for any other reason contact your Quest Software sales representative

7 Along with the LICENSE file the bb-hostscfg bbwarnsmscfg bbwarnsnmpcfg enadiscode editcode datamanagecode securitycfg and bbspotcfg files are also copied And all configuration files in etc are backed up to bkp files including the files copied over

8 If you are saving data to a database please upgrade your database by executing the SQL upgrade script found in ltBBHOMEgtetcdatabaseltdbtypegt_upgrade_410_2_420sql

9 Stop and start the new version of Big Brother server through the Start Menu If there is a problem start with a clean bb-hostscfg file and gradually modify it stopping and starting Big Brother after each change and noting the results

If you want to remove the older version of Big Brother once the new one is up and running from the Windows Control Panel select AddRemove Programs and remove the older version This will not remove the older version from the Start menu you can remove the Start menu items by hand

Note Any Big BrotherSpotlight integration (spot) files in Big Brotherrsquos wwwhtml directory will be lost during the upgrade You can either back up these files before the upgrade and restore them after it or use the bbspotcfg file and bbspotexe program to recreate them after the upgrade


22

About Quest Software

Quest Software Inc delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications databases and Windows infrastructure Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best Quest helps thousands of customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT Questrsquos Windows Management solutions simplify automate and secure Active Directory Exchange and Windows as well as integrate Unix Linux and Java into the managed environment Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at wwwquestcom

Contacting Quest Software

You can contact Quest Software for product and pricing information in any of the following ways

Phone 9497548000 (United States and Canada)

E-mail bbsalesquestcom

Mail Quest Software Inc 5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo CA 92656 USA

Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support

Visit the support web site for current contact information and hours of operation wwwquestcomsupport

Permanent License

To receive a permanent license you must purchase Big Brother Professional Edition To do so contact your Quest sales representative send e-mail to bbsalesquestcom or call (949) 754-8000 Once yoursquove purchased the product send your key string in an e-mail to licensequestcom Please see the online help for instructions on finding your key string and entering your permanent license

Table of Contents


copy Copyright Quest Software Inc 2002ndash2009 All rights reserved This guide contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright The software described in this guide is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaserrsquos personal use without the written permission of Quest Software Inc

Warranty The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice Quest Software makes no warranty of any kind with respect to this information QUEST SOFTWARE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF THE MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE Quest Software shall not be liable for any direct indirect incidental consequential or other damage alleged in connection with the furnishing or use of this information

Trademarks Quest Big Brother Foglight and Spotlight are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quest Software Inc Other trademarks and registered trademarks used in this guide are property of their respective owners










World Headquarters


USA wwwquestcom




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Table of Contents

















TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1




2






3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents










World Headquarters


USA wwwquestcom




v

Table of Contents

















TABLE OF CONTENTS

vi





1




2






3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents

v

Table of Contents

















TABLE OF CONTENTS

vi





1




2






3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

vi





1




2






3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


1




2






3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


2






3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


3

About This Document










Getting the Product






TCPIP networking




4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


4



















5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


5









6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


6





7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


7















8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


8









9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


9















10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


10








hostname











Directives




11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


11

Big Brother Roles












Defining New Hosts





http19216801



12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


12













httpwww-path


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


13






















14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


14











httpmywebserver8080






15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


15



















16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


16















17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


17





Creating DB tables










18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


18

Notification

















19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


19










or












time 0000-2359


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


20
























21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


21


4 Click send ack
















22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents


22








Web site wwwbb4com

wwwquestcom


Technical Support


Permanent License


Table of Contents

Windows Server Getting Started Guide 430

Documents

Transcript of Windows Server Getting Started Guide 430